Winter ONEderland!

Ellie's first birthday party was a smashing success! We were able to host it in a room at our church and had a party coordinator which helped everything to go smoothly. We spent a lot of time creating her unique decorations and I have pinterest the thank for some of the ideas. We had many members of our family attend and some of our closest friends. Ellie was an ANGEL and didn't cry once. She was all smiles, tore open her gifts (with help) and face planted into her cake! Here are some of my photos from the day. I have video as well but I took it in HD with my camera and so its too large a file for this blog. Should have taken some with my phone but never thought of it. Anyway, here was our whirlwind of a birthday party :)

Pinterest for these ideas



It took over a month for Eric and I to create this banner. I did the larger cardstock pieces and the ribbon and Eric printed and cut out the letters (with an exacto knife!). "Ellliana" is actually wooden letters that can be re-used in her room or other crafts in the future.

Just chillin' with dad before the guests arrived

She loves balloons!

Somehow I came up with this table decoration myself. "Christmas village" snow, snowflake confetti (found on etsy) and framed 4x6s of Ellie through her first year.

She really liked that balloon and was throwing it to my cousin Sarah.

She had good practice opening gifts at Christmas. She is a bit slow and wants to eat the paper but she did her share of tearing and making a mess

This was our gift to her, a small slide with steps to climb and a basketball hoop and bat with an attached swinging ball.

First veggie tales gifts! Looking forward to Bob the Tomato teaching her bible truths

Her first riding toy! She loves it!

Photo op with her cousin Jae

Eating her pizza but refusing to look at me



A bit of an age gap with these cousins! Damion is 18, Jaelynn is 6, and Ellie is 1. Hard to ever get a picture of them all together!



My camera was out of battery at this point but I thought I had video of her face-planting into the cake. She thought it was way easier to eat the cake with just her mouth then to use her hands anymore. What a mess!



At the end of the day, we are the happiest family ever. Looking forward to the next year with all the changes, challenges, and surprises that are sure to come our way!